Association Football club names are a part of the sport's culture, reflecting century-old traditions. Club names may reflect the geographical, cultural, religious or political affiliations – or simply be the brand name of a club's primary sponsor. Because of the British origin of the modern game and the prevalence of the English language, many clubs, even outside Europe, have their names written in English.

Official names often also contain common component (prepositions, conjunctions, etc.)

Club names containing the name of a company. These clubs were either founded as works teams by a company for its employees (e.g. PSV), bought by a company (e.g. the three Red Bull teams), or incorporate a corporate sponsor's name (e.g. Technogroup)

NB: Soccer teams associated with colleges and universities in the United States and Canada are not listed here. These clubs are not independent of the school, and are divisions within a much larger school sports program.

Topic

Meaning

Country

Clubs

Academic

Affiliation with academics. See also Estudiantes, University, Polytechnic.

Mostly clubs founded by and for members of the Irish diaspora. The name of Celta de Vigo did not come from an Irish diaspora, but was instead inspired by the ancient Celtic presence in the club's home region of Galicia.

Southampton were originally called St. Mary's Young Men's Association F.C. (usually abbreviated to "St. Mary's Y.M.A."), taking on the names St. Mary's F.C. and Southampton St. Mary's before settling on the present name.